Live Blogging My Call With Katie Couric

I am on a conference call with Katie Couric, discussing kids and the recession: Children of the Recession.

So far introductions all around. CBS News is concentrating on how the recession is impacting children. 6:30pm Evening News, and the Early Show. Go to cbsnews.com to view all of these insightful and important stories launching this week.

In LA abuse and neglect cases on the rise, ER visits are up – is it better reporting or is it a true social crisis? Most experts say it is a direct increase related to in home stress.

How are kids manifesting the psychological impact of their parents’ stress. The schools are taking on the job of grocery store, psychologist, office supplies, wardrobe supplier. Kids know what is going on. They need to talk about it and be a part of it. Can kids learn effectively with this kind of stress going on?

This focus by CBS News is really important because there hasn’t been a lot of attention paid to kids and family and the recession. For example, 20% of families are forgoing medical care or dental care because of the economy.

11:29 am:

Healthcare: Huge increase in families going to free or mobile clinics who never thought they’d use one, but now they’ve lost their job and/or insurance.

SCHIP medical insurance will only cover about 1/2 the eligible children.

Are small grassroots efforts making a difference? Safe Families is one example of a small group which has grown to seven cities. They take in kids on a temporary basis while their parents get on back on their feet.

Would Michelle Obama want to take this up as her mission as First Lady? In this rescession, if she is focusing on family wouldn’t this be a natural extension?

Tomorrow on the Early Show they are going to be covering how to talk to your kids about the economy.

11:40

What’s your local idea? What’s going on in your home/school/region? Do you have a resource you want to share? Are you in need?

11:45

How is the economy impacting nutrition and grocery shopping? 21% of families are buying more generics and cheaper food. Are they buying less healthy food? More fast food? Or is this an opportunity to get back to healthier eating at home? More vegetables and fruit? Duke University says that cheaper food usually means fattier, less healthful food. Will this also effect school lunch?

11:52

I get a question in! How about our public schools bearing the brunt of the impact on children? Record number of Kindergarteners in NYC public schools. Huge increase in kids leaving private schools for public. Can the schools be expected to deal with this influx of kids and yet have the same budgets, keep class size down, and not lose what makes a school special – an art room, music, science, etc. There’s a story there…

Now we’re talking about the other side of fear – shame. What is the support available for parents? How can they not be isolated or feel like they personally failed. Will people be willing to talk about it?

The childcare case workers that are now overwhelmed? Are there services being provided for them? Some regions are actuallly cutting these workers because of budget cuts just when more of them are needed.

12:00 pm

Check out the Evening News with Katie Couric for all of these stories. On cbsnews.com you can find the links and stories and follow the series, Children of the Recession. Get help, get resources and get involved.

How are Katie Couric and her staff dealing with covering these stories? She feels like now more than ever this kind of journalism is necessary. This is the work she is truly proud of. They are trying to tie it all together with bloggers and local resources and form a plan of action. In my opinion, this is why network and big journalism is necessary. Who else can do this? Who else will relentlessly pursue these issues and tie all of these resources together? Right now, it’s Katie Couric and CBS News. So, good for them, good for us.

4 thoughts on “Live Blogging My Call With Katie Couric”

Thanks for live-blogging our phone call. You really were able to catch the big picture as well as all of the important questions that came up. I’ve been looking forward to reading each mom’s point of view. Take care!

Thank you for blogging about your call with Katie Couric. We hope that your blog post reaches many people who will stop and think about what they can contribute to their own community – whether in the public schools, donating to local food banks and shelters. Regardless of what gifts we have – we all have something to contribute.

Lisa, thank you for your comment. Nycmomsblog will be working with Katie Couric to help raise awareness about kids during this tough economy. I hope you’ll follow our blogs and spread the word. Thanks again!